>> oh, yeah. >> it's halloween, and boy is it scary. >> we're not in kansas anymore. >> some people like to drink out of a red solo cup, not a crystal stem. >> it's a college student doing a keg stand. >> has a man ever deliveried a baby. >> clearly -- whatever. >> the website is too slow. too many people have gotten stuck. there's no excuses. i take full responsibility. before the affordable care act, bad apple insurers had free reign to limit the care you received, jack up your priemium. it never came true. >> really this is information and attacks coming from haters. >> will anything spook ted cruz? >> saying that we did everything. >> that would be the end of the republican party. >> you can't defend the substance if you try to change the topic. >> do you want to run for president? >> they can be fascist anarch t anarchists, still won't change the fact that i don't own a car.

good afternoon. this halloween, it is a very tricky situation for the entire political establishment in washington. for the president, his unqualified promise about keeping your insurance plan has led to relentless republican attacks. however grossly misleading they may be. as the president put on it wednesday in boston. republicans are more than happy, of course, to chase away the ghost of their own health care plans, involves things staying as horrific as they have been, with millions more kicked off medicaid. that's a scary thought and in time for all hallows eve. a poll shows 37% say zombies would do a better job than the government. only 37%. as the health care cage match continues, it's no shocker some in washington are turning their energies to other efforts. for the president today, that

meant announcing a new government push to bring jobs and investment from around the world to the u.s. through expansion of a program known as select usa. >> making america even more attractive to investment should be something everybody can agree on, democrats and republicans. i assume if you ask any ceo here if shutting down government makes them more confident about wanting to bring jobs to america, the answer will probably be no, so it's time for congress to focus on what the american people are focused on and what i'm focused on which is creating good jobs that pay good wages. >> the president is calling on congress to provide the necessary resources to bring the program up to its full capability. and i'm sure the house will get right on to that. as soon as they get back from their latest recess on november the 11th. for now, those like congressman darrell issa have the free time to pursue their own priorities, and in his case, a issubpoena t kathleen sebelius, ordering her

to release documents related to the healthcare.gov website. we're pretty sure the secretary's reaction went something like this. >> you clearly -- whatever. >> right, whatever. and the same could be said of senator ted cruz, the would-be grim reaper of the affordable care act. keeping himself busy denying the crass political calculation behind his entire reckless shutdown fiasco. >> people were saying you did it for political reasons because you want to run for president, but do you? >> look, my focus is on 2016 -- jobs and economic growth. >> saying that you did everything because you want to run for president. >> you know -- >> that's not a conversation you want to have yet, or -- >> there is a classic political strategy that if you can't defend the substance, you try to change the topic. >> do you want to run for president? >> my focus is on the u.s.

senate. >> yes. of course, it is. pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. let's get right to our panel. here in new york, is msnbc contributor joy reid. managing editor of the grio.com. in washington, msnbc political analyst, david corn. the washington bureau chief of "mother jones" magazine. joy, congress is on their two-week fall break. issa issued yet another is a subpoena. ted cruz is not thinking of running for president. >> i think if the zombos had i.t. skills they could help the republicans. the most important thing to the republic right now is republicans know the unique visitor count of healthcare.gov. perhaps if the zombies could eat the president's i.t. team, they could sit over a terminal and get to work and get the country moving. >> that's a good answer. david, i'm sure you're awa wawa offer latest nbc/"wall street journal" poll that gives record lows to the president and gop p here's a fright for republicans.

asked to pick their choice for a member of congress, democrats come out on top with 35%. a third party comes in second. and the gop comes in last. i'm not exactly sure about the shutdown antic, but that has to be a worry, does it not, for 2014? >> i think that's why you've heard about the formation of the new zombie party which is starting up today. you know, the shutdown, the debt ceiling crisis showdown, brought everybody down. as it always does. it brought down the republicans the most because the public saw this episode rightly as being mainly their doing and their extremism. the public tends to not like fighting in washington, like you can't fight in the war room. they want people actually to work together here and make compromises because they're not -- the party doesn't reflect the principles, and the -- you know, the operandi of the tea party. all that said, republicans now

think they have an opening with the failure of the obama care website, and with the cancelation policies. they're going to try to crawl, you know, back to life over what they think is the dead body of obama care. we're going to have another round of federal budget fighting and debt ceiling tussle in january and february. and probably one more round, again, before we get to the next election. so there's a long ways to go, but, you know, i think obama, you know, i don't like to get too caught up in any given poll, but this is a pretty big drop for him. and it shows his unfavorable number going up pretty high, and i think there's just been a round of things that haven't played his thing. even like the syria thing. today we have the news that they're actually getting to the destruction of chemical weapons in syria. some of the equipment. >> it's incredible. >> seems like a win, but yet that whole episode didn't really work out for him politically. in a scandal. the obama care stuff. he's taking on a lot of weight right now politically. >> okay. joy, far from learning their lesson, today the senate gop

used filibuster rules to block two of the president's nominees. one on housing, and the other appeals court judge nominee patricia millert, a woman even ted cruz has cited for her, i'm quoting mr. cruz, fine professional credentials. so i guess no matter the president nominated her, that's it, she's not going through. >> there's nothing that's going to do better for a party's brand that has trouble with african-americans and women than blocking the nomination of both an african-american and a woman, because that really sends a message, we care. and the nomination, bloc, is significant in something like that hasn't been done in 100 years. they're setting a new precedent in terms of obstruction, when harry reid came to a deal with mitch mcconnell they were going to put aside this obstruction and move things forward. it shows the republicans are completely and utterly tone deaf.

all most americans will remember about what they're doing is they blocked a nomination of an african-american and a woman. there isn't much more to it than that. people aren't going to dig into the weeds of these nominees. they're going to see the obstruction. it hurts their brand more and more. >> they continue to do it. david, the gop as you know is desperate to retake the senate and also to send the socialist president back to kenya. those are the words of the great rafael cruz, ted cruz's father. in new tape you just put online for "mother jones." take a listen to this. >> we need to send barack obama back to chicago. >> he also says the president is on outright marxist who seeks to destroy all con cemecept of god at the helm of an organization called purifying fire ministries or should that be called pants and mouth on fire ministries? >> the thing is we're not attributing the sins of the father to the son. ted cruz used his father who's a

businessman turned pastor as a surrogate in talking to tea party groups and republican groups. when he was campaigning he took him on the campaign trail with him. when he was courting republicans in iowa this past summer. he's part of the cruz political operation. therefore, i think it's fair to ask ted cruz what you make of this if he had a campaign manager, any other surrogate, making these statements, for instance, saying the president wants to destroy all concept of god? you know, we should send him back to kenya. you get a lot of questions for that. but i think rafael cruz is really intriguing. i find him very interesting because to me he really represents this synthesis of the day party and religious right. he's about as far right as he can be, and libertarian tea party economics. and about as far right as he can be as a christian fundamentalist and really sees no room in this world for anybody with politics other than his. so it gets to the issue we've been talking about for weeks

about where the republican party is, who they think they're representing. they think it's people like rafael cruz, they're going to remain a minority party. >> david, just before i come to joy, how do you respond to the accusation that using a family member does not represent necessarily the views of the individual senator? >> well, when you -- when you have someone speak on your behalf, and some of these tapes, you know, these are tea party groups and republican groups. public events. >> yeah. >> rafael cruz is saying i'm here on behalf of my son. it was during the campaign. he was campaigning for his son. if you had -- you know, remember when john sinunu said barack obama was lazy or wasn't a good american, as part of the mitt romney campaign, the mitt romney campaign had to answer for that. a surrogate, you're responsible for what they say. so in that instance, i think ted cruz has some explaining to do. >> yeah. is it not the case as well that ted cruz has been anointed by his father? there are examples where references are made to elders standing over him, and as it

were anointing him for this role that he's had, i guess, in shutting down the country and bringing it to a stand still. >> right. in a lot of ways, rafael ted cruz sr. and sr., they're both rafael cruz, represent where the republican party is stuck when it comes to their outreach to latinos in the sense there is a very, very right wing cadre, particularly in the cuban-american community in south florida, that are hardcore republicans. now, ironically, enough, i believe rafael ted cruz from the american point of view was on the wrong side of the fidel castro revolution and his son is canadi canadian. he's got an ironic pact to bear in trying to make his son the second coming of ronald reagan. he represents a strain of far right republicanism that's common in south florida. marco rubio edged out of that to become the tea party guy. there is that. that is where the core of republican latino support comes from. if you look at latinos overall, they're something like 65% democrat. if you look at the

cuban-american population, particularly older, rafael ted cruz's generation, they're very much republicans. the problem for the republican party is that that part of the hispanic cohort doesn't relate very much to the other. they don't relate on immigration issues as you see ted cruz doesn't. they're not necessarily compelling message wise. having rafael ted cruz may seem this is a way hispanics will find us compelling. it's the opposite. it's a turnoff. it's interesting to see how the republican party manages. will they ever reach out to the rest of the latino cohort who are not that far right? >> and there's a longer discussion here to be had just on sort of the theology of fundamentalist christians who are supporting the tea party. rafael cruz is part of a group of evangelical, you know, i'd call them probably protestant ministers many of whom, actually i think catholics which are a large majority of latinos are not true christians. there's a lot of cross-cutting currents here that don't help the republican party. >> david corn there taking every opportunity to promote his own

work on our broadcast. >> you asked. >> i did. i'm grateful to you. now shut up. coming up, republican binge and purge. this time, spitting out the food stamp benefits of nearly 50 million americans. we'll take two tums and talk to a member of congress next. but first, a hat tip to boston's strongest. >> i am well aware that a presidential visit is not the biggest thing going on today in boston. >> what a great night. and i was up late with my son. congratulations to the boston red sox. world champions. and even if you're not a red sox fan, you have to say it's a wonderful thing to the city of boston and the fans there after everything they've been through. and what a great team. what a great win. what a lot of fun. what an amazing baseball player david ortiz is. [ male announcer ] at humana, understanding what makes you different

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i'll continue to work with my colleagues to implement reforms in the s.n.a.p. program, to cut back on waste, fraud and abuse. >> why does the safety net need reform? because people are getting tangled up and stuck in it. the house addresses this by ending benefits for individuals that quite honestly don't qualify for them. >> tomorrow, $5 billion will be cut from the nation's food stamp program. the money came from stimulus spending that the president wants to maintain, but republicans, of course, have said no. never mind that the deficit has pa fallen to its lowest point in five years nor the studies show the food program known as s.n.a.p. benefits our economy as

a whole, nor that those affected will includes veteran, children, seniors and those with a disability. no. low taxes for the very rich are just too important. joining us now, i'm delighted to say, is democratic congresswoman caroline maloney of new york. good afternoon, ma'am. >> good afternoon, martin. >> this cut works out, i think, to about 8 cents per meal. that may not sound a lot to many people, but i know in addition to an event today with new york coalition against hunger, you recently visited a children's food pantry in new york and saw firsthand what this is like. >> well, what it translates into, this $5 billion that this cut is going to be is the scariest halloween ever for hungry americans. it translates into roughly $1.50 that they get per meal per day. and this cut will -- >> $1.50. now, i can't buy -- >> they're going to cut thought. >> -- coffee for $1.50 in this

building in rockefeller center. they want to cut it from $1.50 to $1.40. >> try living on $1.40 per meal in america. people are hungry. they are hungry in america. roughly 50 million people are not getting three meals a day, and they're cutting not only the $5 billion that goes into effect tomorrow, but in the farm bill on the house side, they cut it a whopping $40 billion. the senate cut it by $4 billion. they're going to conference. there will be a compromise someplace. but we will be fighting to do away with these cuts and try to eliminate them. >> yeah. you mention the house gop wants to cut even more. that's $40 billion. which comes to 3.8 million people. now, their reasoning, all the time, as you heard just now, is fraud is rife, all of these poor people are stealing and defrauding money from all of us. why do they maintain this

fantasy? and if there is fraud, why no prosecute the fraudster rather than punish the poor? >> why? they want to punish the most vulnerable. it's been proven that the food programs are among the most successful in direct aid to people that have fallen on hard times. we also know from economists that for every dollar you spend, you get roughly $1.79 back in economic activity. these dollars go right back into the neighborhood it's spent to help the economy. so it makes no sense on an economic level, or a humane level, or just plain common sense. no one supports fraud. if there's fraud, prosecute it. these people are hungry. i was at our children out in queens recently, which has a wonderful food pantry. and today with the coalition against hunger, we met at our father's heart ministries, in that city downtown. and they tell me that on the weekend, people line up for blocks to come in to get food.

yet, that food that they're getting is going to be cut. >> why having spent last year in a presidential election fight, with republicans repeatedly talking about the takers and the makers, attacking people, deriding 47% of the nation. why do they persist with this? >> don't ask me. i'm not a republican. i don't understand it. and i've never seen it so extreme. this is the same team that gave us the shutdown of the american economy for 18 days. this tea party faction has cost this country billions. absolutely billions. and what's so outrageous about it is it's a self-inflicted wound. we didn't have to close down the government. there's so many things we don't have an answer to -- >> yet congresswoman, they never talk about the $24 billion that was lost in the shutdown. what they talk about is saving $4 billion in food stamps. >> you have it exactly right. and i'm going to do a report on

what this has cost us and compare it to the food stamp program. >> please do that. >> it makes no sense whatsoever to shut down the government, costing billions and billions and making it $1.40 for what a person has to buy their lunch, dinner and break fast. it's outrageous, it's wrong and need to turn it around. >> congresswoman carolyn maloney. >> thank you for your concern. >> thank you. stay with us. your trick-or-treat top lines are coming up. and whatever you do, do not follow the republicans' yellow brick road. >> while you're from kansas, we're not in kansas anymore. some might say that we are actually in the "wizard of oz" land. before carolyn hughes was a peacekeeper in haiti... before william hughes fought in vietnam... and john hughes

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emerald city. here are today's top lines. be afraid. be very afraid. >> it's halloween, and boy, is it scary. >> there she is. promising, swearing to god that she's going to tell the truth. >> chair now advises you that you are -- i'll now read you -- -- >> to the best of your knowledge, has a man ever dli h delivered a baby? >> nothing will save this show. >> do you agree with this type of advertising for obama care. >> i can't see it. >> it's a college student doing a keg stand. >> it's so good. >> some people like to drink out of a red solo cup, not a crystal stem. >> red solo cup. you're not just a cup. you're my friend. >> friend. >> while you're from kansas, you're not in kansas anymore. >> it's bad enough picking on a straw man, but when you go around picking on poor little dogs. >> i might say we are actually

in the wizard of oz land. ♪ if you only had a brain >> i use the line about the wizard of oz, in oz, it's more important what the perception is than the reality is. >> that's not funny. >> i don't know how you keep your cool, madame secretary with this continuous effort on the part of the gop to sabotage the aca. >> i think it's great that you're a team player and taking responsibility. it is the president's ultimate responsibility, correct? >> you clearly -- whatever. >> scare people. and bring up red herrings. >> she dodged questions. she made up facts. >> be afraid. be very afraid. >> and continued to be dishonest with you, the american people. >> you can look all around. nothing but -- as far as the eye can see. >> let's get right to our panel from washington and the "washington post" is dana milbank. in the studio, mckay coppens, political editor of "buzz feed."

dana, the rollout of affordable care act has been disastrous for administration and presented a great opportunity for the gop, so they decided to joke about the wizard of oz and frat guys doing keg stands. with people like, of course, congresswoman marsha blackburn folking at the mouth, it seems as they were less interested in exploiting the opportunity than auditioning for the house republicans' vampire costume this evening. >> yeah. i think they could have really done sebelius and the administration some damage if they only had a brain. but in this case, it turned out not to be functioning very well. the collective republican brain. i think what happened is, she simply disarmed them by doing that rarest of things in washington, and taking responsibility for something saying, yep, we screwed this thing up, i'm sorry, we're going to nix it. that seemed to have taken the wind out of their sails. you had a few. you had marsha blackburn, you had the keg stand.

you had a couple of those other clips you played, but i think they were kind of didn't know what to do and instead they went off down that yellow brick road and were attacked by flying monkeys and fields of poppy and things. >> yes, they were. mckay, how much longer does the gop simply define itself by what it's against? it's against the affordable care act. they offer no alternative. they oppose the president on syria. today we've had some encouraging news with regard to the dismantling of chemical weapons. cantor, boehner, they say we're speaking on behalf of the american people. the american people want solutions. they want constructive solutions. these people aren't representing anything. >> well, i think you've actually heard a growing number of republicans both in washington and outside say that, you know, the party needs to pig year out what its agenda is. what are our ideas? what is the point of our opposition to obama? obviously, you know, with the obama care rollout, as a great example, of something that's

going disastrously for the president, and,alternative, bote republicans' poll numbers and the president's poll numbers have sunk. we heard mike lee, a tea party senator from utah give a speech earlier this year saying, kind of speaking to the movement, the conservative movement and saying a lot of us like to believe that the reagan revolution redux is around the corner. what we're missing is the idea, we don't have an agenda. >> thank you for admitting that. isn't this republican opposition strategy simply time limited? because if the website works by the end of november and people come to the conclusion they actually have health insurance they prefer, what are republicans left with? i mean, defending individual plans that had no holes than swiss cheese. is that it? >> well, to the extent there is a strategy as opposed to just reflexive opposition, the idea is to make this so unpopular that the young and the healthy

don't sign up for it, thereby, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and obama care fails. now, look, if obama care succeeds either way, the republicans, having tried 48, whatever times to repeal it, are not going to look good either way. so they're pretty much all in in terms of making this, dooming this program to the greatest extent that they can. and, you know, the program is going to -- and the president's fortunes and the republican fortunes are going to rise or fall based on the success of this program and not what anybody says. >> absolutely. mckay, senate majority leader harry reid believes that ted cruz, being the gop nominee in 2016, would actually prove to be the end of the gop. take a listen to this. >> if i didn't care so much about our country, i would hope he would get the republican nomination for president. because that would be the end of the republican party. >> what do you think? >> i think a lot of republicans are not too enthusiastic about taking advice from harry reid.

>> i understand that. but the point he makes? >> i think, you know, the big question -- >> you can see him winning a large number of primaries. he would appeal to the base. >> no, no. >> he'd be on fire. what would that do to the party? >> i was out in iowa with him last weekend. conservatives love him. i mean, the big question about ted cruz, is if he became the nominee, would he be a barry goldwater figure or ronald reagan figure? right? would he actually spark a revolution? or would he, you know, be this kind of crusade and martyr for the cause? i think the concern with ted cruz is so far he's been content to play the role of a champion of, you know, these values while being a martyr and not actually succeeding in getting any policy implemented. and as long as he's going to continue to ride that wave through 2016, i don't know that it would habe a good thing for e party. there's a lot of daylight between now and 2016. >> mckay coppins, dana milbank. thank you both gentlemen so much. coming up, breaking news on

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uh-oh. geico. fifteen minutes could save you...well, you know. we're following breaking news involving a possible israeli strike against syria. israeli warplanes are reportedly suspected of firing on a shipment of russian missiles near the syrian coastal town of latakia. this apparently part of an effort to keep advanced weapons from falling into the wrong hands. israeli officials are not commenting. it comes on the heels of a deadline in which syria declared it has destroyed its stockpiles of chemical weapons and production facilities. for more on the significance of this, i'm joined by the "atlantic's" steve clemens. steve, what can you tell us? >> well, i just happened to come from a meeting with a senior administration official who happened to state that this was an israeli attack.

and added the other interesting pee pieces of this, which we hadn't heard before, part of the systems were russian in origin. that's a complicating factor. of course, we have very critical weapons inspections and chemical weapons destruction efforts under way. key meetings tomorrow. so the timing is odd. the attack is consistent with how israel has tracked weapons systems before that it thought would reach hezbollah. and so speculating it looks as if israel was worried the shipment of these systems was imminent and took action. >> why now? particularly on a day when we've had encouraging news about the dismantling of syria's chemical weapons. >> well, it does show that israel continues to be ferociously focused on its core interests in a way that do not necessarily play nicely with other coordinated efforts with allies. and that's probably a good way of saying they are not worried. they're not thinking about the chemical weapons issues. that's not what the immediate concern is to them. what is of immediately

concerning are the quality and quantity of weapons systems that fall into the hands of hezbollah during a messy conflict that could then be aimed at israeli cities. >> steve clemons of the "atlantic." thanks so much. >> thank you. coming up, we will return to the domestic front. we'll pal around with sarah palin's favorite terrorist. bill ayers joins us straight ahead. this is the quicksilver cash back card from capital one. it's not the "fumbling around with rotating categories" card. it's not the "getting blindsided by limits" card. it's the no-game-playing, no-earning-limit-having, deep-bomb-throwing, give-me-the-ball-and-i'll-take- it-to-the-house, cash back card. this is the quicksilver cash card from capital one. unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, everywhere, every single day. so let me ask you... what's in your wallet?

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okay, who helps you focus on your recovery? yo, yo, yo. aflac. wow. [ under his breath ] that was horrible. pays you cash when you're sick or hurt? [ japanese accent ] aflac. love it. [ under his breath ] hate it. helps you focus on getting back to normal? [ as a southern belle ] aflac. [ as a cowboy ] aflac. [ sassily ] aflac. uh huh. [ under his breath ] i am so fired. you're on in 5, duck. [ male announcer ] when you're sick or hurt, aflac pays you cash. find out more at aflac.com. one of barack obama's early supporters. is a man named bill ayers. is a man who, according to "the new york times," was a domestic terrorist. the former domestic terrorist. to pal around with terrorists. he had launched his political career in the living room of a domestic terrorist? >> of all her absurd attacks

from 2008, perhaps most notable is sarah palin's assertion that the democratic candidate was, quote, palling around with terrori terrorists. the terrorists she had in mind was bill ayers, a former left wing militant from the vietnam era who later settled down as an education scholar living in chicago. and thanks to mrs. palin, his ties to the president became one of the most explosive features of the entire campaign. and we're joined now by bill ayers, himself, who has a brand new book out. it's called "public enemy: confessions of an american dissident." good afternoon, sir. >> thank you very much for having me. >> it's great to have you, mr. ayers. now, we hear a lot about the bitter divisions in american politics today. in your book, however, you talk a little bit about the '60, a time when you and your associates actually resorted to violence because of the vietnam war. is there really any comparison at all between then and now? >> i don't think the comparisons hold up. i mean, the '60s is mostly myth

and symbol today. it's something -- i don't remember, for example, december 31st, 1969 saying oh my gosh, it's almost over, let's get busy. nobody lives by decades. i think there's a continuous flow. there are some similarities, but lots of differences. but the main thing is the passions that ignited my interests when i was a young man continue to ignite nigh intermy interests and that's global justice or peace, racial justice, economic justice. all these issues are still alive and still important. >> absolutely. i want to play part of an interview that you gave for a website. just take a listen to this. >> do you think barack obama should be put on trial for war crimes? >> absolutely. every president in this century should be put on trial. every one of them -- >> for war crimes? >> for war crimes. absolutely. >> so sarah palin used your name to smear the president with terrorism. but now here you are saying that the president's use of drones also constitutes terrorism. is there not a certain irony to that? >> well, i don't know.

sarah palin, it's worth remembering, martin, that the first person who introduced this narrative about the guilt by association was not sarah palin. it was hillary clinton. clinton lost on that narrative. you know, the narrative being we don't know much about this charismatic, brilliant guy from illinois, but we know he has some sketchy friends. jeremiah wright, bill ayers. that didn't work then. sarah palin picked it up in the wonderful deathless phrase, palled around with terrorists. i immediately contacted her people and proposed we did a show called "palling around with sarah and bill." i thought we could sell it to msnbc or fox or both at the same time. apparently that didn't work out because she never got back to me. but the truth is that there is a standard. and this is something, i think, for you and for your viewers to consider. if we hold as a standard that torture is against international standards, is against the law internationally, if drone strikes, targeted assassinations and so on are illegal for some, then they're illegal for all.

what i was saying in that over the top interview online is i was saying i'm not a legal scholar. i'm not a lawyer. but it seems to me there's a case to be made that if the united states is commanding its violent legions and doing things like torturing people, then if it's bad when other countries do it, it's bad when we do it. we ought to hold ourselves to the same high standard or we lose all credibility. >> i'll be sending those comments to dick cheney. >> i appreciate it. >> it was recently revealed the national security agency spied on 35 different world leaders. now as you know, the revelation was made possible by the great edward snowden. would you call him an american dissident in the same way -- >> i would -- >> you describe -- you would? >> i would, indeed. one of the things i think is a fact of our lives, i think we all know it, 1984 is not a theoretical possibility but a regard reality. we're all under surveillance at all times. the wonderful thing about edward

snowden and glen greenwald and chelsey manning, it's not that they're preventing it but they're watching them watching us. that's worth something and allows us to push back and demand something better. >> bill ayers, thank you, sir, for joining us this afternoon. >> appreciate it. coming up, the republicans' self-destruction tour invades the old dominion. yes, virginia. and this, this is no laughing matter. >> i think liberals don't have much of a sense of humor compared to conservatives. that's my personal experience.

four . for republicans, 2016 may begin in virginia or maybe it ends there. because in the final week of what's been a disastrous gubernatorial campaign, potential presidential candidates including marco

rubio, and scott walker, are expected to stump for the gop's ken cuccinelli. even ron paul is expected to follow in his son's, rand paul's, footsteps perhaps proving that copying others does, in fact, run in the family. still, none of this is ex-pebpe to help cuccinelli or his campaign where his latest scandal involves the venom he once spewed in a newsletter sent to reporters. with the president scheduled to campaign for democrat terry mcauliffe this weekend, the only question now appears to be whether cuccinelli loses by double or single digits. joining us now, msnbc political analyst, the great professor michael eric dyson. this race, sir, has been a snapshot of what is hurting republicans nationally. we have a candidate who performs very poorly among women. whose hatred for homosexuality is matched by his contempt for the affordable care act and

seems obsessed that oral sex is never performed in public. does that seem like a winning agenda to you? >> only if you're interested in multicultural -- on halloween. tho that's not a treat, that's a trick. absolutely, martin. you articulated by the republican party continues to face enormous barriers and hurdles trying to reach out to other reasonable americans but in specific fashion to african-americans and other minorities who happen to believe that the republican party is no friend to them at all. women who find their bodies at stake and vulnerable, african-american people who find their rights being buffeted and attacked. and, of course, gay and lesbian, transgendered and bisexual people who feel they're on the outs. so what is real here is the republican party has to come out of the closet of its own bigotry, acknowledge what it's doing here and recognize it either will step into the 21st century along with the rest of us who are trying to combat the vicious isms on the one hand and embrace the politics on the

other. the republicans can never win with this kind of strategy. >> now, the bigger clown in this race may even be the gop candidate for lieutenant governor, that is e.w. jackson. he is now denying he ever said anything disparaging about homosexuals. just so we all remember what he actually said, i'd like you, sir, to take a listen to two clips from the great man. >> their minds are perverted. they are -- they're, frankly, very sick people. psychologically and mentally and emotionally. how in the world can we expect our military to be blessed by the hand of almighty god if we allow our military to become the equivalent of demora? i tell you something, god is not pleased. >> professor dyson, you're a learned man. help us with the questions e.w. raises. are democrats the -- of satan

and has the united states become the -- >> my god have mercy. you know what, martin whar, wha interesting is this guy wants god to co-sign his -- he wants to bring in divinity, and to acknowledge that all human beings are children of god. even jesus said i have sheep -- my father has sheep and another foal. there are believers beyond my own particular tent. none us have the right to cast anybody into hell or cast dispersions on the character of somebody else because we disafree with their sexual orientation. this is the most vicious and venomous expression of the politics of i think hatred that are being practiced in certain christian circles and the more bitter they become, the more rancorous their rhetoric is, they feel that they're being blessed by god because they're being courageous and prophetic and what they really are is pathetic. god says ultimately, the god i know and worship says love thy

neighbor as thyself. there's no asterisk there, except gay people, lesbian people, people on s.n.a.p. these are a denunciation of the very heart of the gospel. >> okay. well thank you for the theology, professor. reince priebus, the head of the rnc, told republicans after the election they needed to be more inclusive and less frightening. is virginia definitive proof that nobody has listened to a single word he said, and that his so-called autopsy, his autopsy report, it's about as useful as mitt romney's own plan for his own presidential inaugurationer er ier i er ice? >> as usual, you're eloquently insightful there. nobody is listening, nobody is home, the lights are dimmed and the republican party is hurdling toward its own demise. the refusal to engage in a

sensible appreciation for people who think differently than you is the mark of not only our humanity but of broadening our conception of politics to say that, look, even if i disagree with you, i don't have to demonize you. the bitterness and vitreal we see expressed here is a denunciation of american politics at its best. what happened to out of many one? what happened to understanding even though we disagree, republican, democrat, independent, liberal, conservative, radical, left or right, that at the end of the day we're still american citizens and we are people who should be protected in the courts and the law of this land, as well as in the politics and in legislation. and most especially, in our common conventions in society where we treat each other with respect. the republican party is so far off here, that i'm afraid not only are they not in the same lane we're traveling in, they may be from a different planet. >> professor michael eric dyson, preaching there. our final hymn is "amazing grace." thank you, sir.

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lines? know that we're always listening and we do appreciate your feedback. coming up right now, my friend and colleague, ed schultz, and "the ed show." good evening, americans. welcome to "the ed show" live from new york. let's get to work. >> look at poverty in this country. >> the mentality of the country has shifted from self-reliance to where's mine? give me mine. i want mine. >> narcotic irks. >> entitlements are narcotics. i mean, you have food stamp junkies riding the meal nopony two, three times a day. >> everybody out of work is eating, have a big screen tv, have a car, have a cell phone. >> sometimes first thing they do in the morning is wake and bake. >> go ahead, msnbc, show the world what you're creating. >> 28% of the american people